Ingredient of the week: Mint

The aromatic herb mint is featured in this week’s collection of six recipes, including a frittata, a meringue cake and two classic cocktails.

Mint leaves have diverse culinary uses. Mint jelly is a partner for lamb in British cuisine, fresh mint leaves an integral ingredient in the Levantine bread salad fattoush, and sprigs garnish and flavour classic cocktails such as the mojito and the mint julep, and teas such as Touareg tea in Morocco.

Note: We’ve featured this ingredient before, in 2012, but this collection of recipes is all new.

Susan Schwartz writes of this frittata recipe from Franny’s Simple, Seasonal Italian (Artisan Books, 2013), by Melissa Clark, Andrew Feinberg and Francine Stephens: “Baking in a low-heat oven yields a delicate, custardy frittata. Feinberg and Stephens, who run the popular Brooklyn restaurant Franny’s, like this frittata served on top of toasted country-style bread as crostini, but say that it also makes a simple, nourishing supper on its own.”

Brendan Brazier put a gluten-free twist on couscous-based tabbouleh salad. He writes of the recipe in Thrive Energy Cookbook: 150 Functional, Plant-Based Whole Food Recipes (Penguin Canada, 2014): “Traditional tabbouleh is made with couscous, which is standard wheat. Quinoa contains about 20 per cent more protein, is gluten-free and is easier to digest than wheat.”

Alison Ladman gives mint its due in this recipe for Minted Lemon and Olive Chicken Wraps. Ladman writes of the herb, “We gladly pair it with chocolate and fruit, but it almost never makes appearances in savoury dishes. But the rest of the world knows better, adding it with abandon to all manner of savoury dairy, vegetable and meat dishes. That’s because a little bit of its naturally sweet, herby flavour can go a long way to playing up the savoury elements of a dish.”

Watermelon, cucumber, shallot, mint, lime juice, sugar and salt combine in this salsa to be served alongside grilled jerk chicken. Sara Moulton writes of the recipe, “The job of the watermelon salsa is to balance the heat of the chilies. All by itself, of course, ripe watermelon is one of the top reasons to love summer.”

Sprigs of fresh mint are arranged with a mix of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries around this tiered meringue cake from Bonnie Stern. The light, spring cake also happens to be gluten-free.

You don’t need to be at the Kentucky Derby to enjoy a Mint Julep. Bourbon, fresh mint, sugar and water; simplicity is just what we look for in a cocktail. While we’re at it, here’s a classic mojito recipe for good measure.